Rwanda’s Resilient and Consistent Censorship Regime

Rwanda’s Resilient and Consistent Censorship Regime

By: Arthur Gwagwa

Key Findings

The Open Observatory on Interference (OONI) technical measurements collected between1st July 2018 to 15th November reveal web connectivity anomalies caused by Domain Name System (DNS)-based censorship.

Manual tests on a sample of 5 of the technically tested websites done on the Chrome browser between 7 and 9 October found them inaccessible, whereas the same websites were accessible on Opera with built-in VPN.

All the websites, with the exception of one, which presented connectivity anomalies, are owned or run by Rwandans and all carry vernacular content critical of the government.

The censorship regime in Rwanda is not necessarily responsive to key political events as censorship has continued despite the recent presidential pardons.

Future threat modelling of digital threats should therefore take into account the consistent and resilient nature of Rwanda’s censorship regime.